Celeb shows lack charisma - An article

Celebrities may have flocked to dance reality shows to cash in on the boom, but looks like, viewers are not buying it. Blame it on over exposure or lack of novelty, tube is not star struck any more. From Nach Baliye, Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena and Dancing Queen to Jhalak, every show is faring badly.
In stark contrast, shows with regular people like Dance India Dance are a hit with viewers. Also, Boogie Woogie, a 13-year-old brand which is a platform for common people is still doing well. Its ratings are close to that of Jhalak (around 1 TVR against 1.5 of Jhalak). Dance India Dance averages around 3.5 TVR.
Sony's creative head Sanjay Upadhyay, identifies a reason for this trend. "It's a problem of plenty," he says. According to him, if one show doesn't do well, then it can be a platform (channel) issue. "But when show after show starts struggling, then it's clearly the fatigue factor." In the last one and half years, all GE channels have used celebrity dance shows to grab eyeballs. "With too many clones around, original formats lost their novelty," adds Sanjay.
Another problem plaguing celebrity dance shows is the paucity of new television celebrities. "Not many new celebrities have come up in the last few years," says Sanjay.
Besides fatigue and dilution in the grade of celebrities, according to choreographer-cum-director Farha Khan who has judged one season each of Jhalak and Nach Baliye, the level of performance has also come down considerably. "I don't see celebrities performing like Shveta Salve and Rakhi Sawant anymore," she points out.
Farha's long-time assistant Geeta Kapoor who is a mentor as well as a judge on Dance India Dance feels that celebrities don't give their best. "They don't work as hard as the regular professional dancers because they have too many restrictions — lack of time, injury issues and unwillingness to experiment with new forms of dance," says Geeta.
She adds further, "People are tired of celebrity shows because they have realised that celebrities dance mainly for money."
On the other hand, real dance enthusiasts put in their best as they have nothing to lose. "Television is a big platform for them and a sure ticket to fame and success. Not only are they good dancers, but they are willing to experiment with difficult and dangerous acts," says Geeta. Vaibhavi Merchant, currently a judge on Jhalak agrees that Dance India Dance and Boggie Woggie are innovative. "But you can't compare them with celebrity shows because not all celebrities are great dancers. The degrees of expectations have to be different because the level of professionalism is different," she says.
This explains the poor ratings for celebrity shows. "Audience is there for both kinds of shows. But the range is wide in shows that feature common people," admits Vaibhavi. In Geeta's opinion shows like Dance India Dance and Boogie Woogie score over celebrity shows because viewers find an easy connect with the participants. "Mass connect is very strong because viewers identify with the participants," she adds.
Zee's programming head Ajay Bhalwankar agrees, "Such shows connects with the roots and masses and that's the USP."